I have set up Ubuntu Mate on a Pine64 2GB a month ago to "not ask password at login". The problem now is I somehow have forgotten the password for root and I cannot do updates and upgrades, installation/removal/purge of packages.

Tried some web searches for recovering the root password (pressing "shift" or "Cntrl" at bootup to access GRUB) but those procedures presented were not applicable for Pine64 Ubuntu Mate (cannot access GRUB).

If there is a better recovery procedure, I (and probably a lot of others) will be more than happy follow it so that I can recover/reset the password.

As of now I can still access/use my Ubuntu Mate as a Linux desktop, but would like to start updating it to the latest available updates/upgrades.

(08-01-2017, 08:31 AM)Captain Anni Hilator Wrote: If there is a better recovery procedure, I (and probably a lot of others) will be more than happy follow it so that I can recover/reset the password.

Pop the SD out of the Pine board, and pop it into another gnu+linux machine; use the second machine to edit the passwd file , sudoers file , etc; make any changes appropriate and then put the SD card back into the Pine board; voilà !

marcushh777

please join us for a chat @ irc.pine64.xyz:6667 or ssl irc.pine64.xyz:6697

( I regret that I am not able to respond to personal messages; let's meet on irc! )

Hi there! I finally had access to the files (passwd, sudoers,) as stated above, however I'm stuck on what to do next, what to look for in the file (part to edit) and what to do next after that (before the "put the SD card back to the pine board, viola")

Tried deleting the encrypted entries in the shadow file, (backed it up first) but still not able to set/reset password for ubuntu and/or root after putting it back to the pine board.